


Consolation

by AnnaofAza



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Not A Fix-It, Past Character Death, Reminiscing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-02-07
Packaged: 2018-05-18 18:35:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5938819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnaofAza/pseuds/AnnaofAza
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During the traditional twenty-hour hours, Harry's newest proposal asks about the previous Galahad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Consolation

**Author's Note:**

> This fic title shares the same title as Robert Louis Stevenson's [poem.](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175275)

A finger pointed to one of the newspapers on the wall. “What’s this one?” 

Harry leaned back in his chair, nursing another glass of gin. This was his third one tonight. “That was the day I saved the prince of Thailand from a rebel faction trying to take over a year after V-Day.” 

The young man looked impressed. “By yourself?” 

“No,” Harry said simply. He remembered that day–dreadfully hot, sweating underneath his suit, and sitting for what it seemed like hours during a long and boring speech, waiting for the assassins to turn up. It had been so still that day that the wind chimes near them didn’t make a sound. The only sound was the prince, droning on and on, and a voice in his ear, teasingly offering bits of commentary. 

A different voice—younger and a little lower-pitched—interrupted his thoughts, curiously asking, “Who was with you?” 

“Galahad.”

“Oh.” The boy, Jack, paused. He looked younger than his eighteen years, eager eyes and ears still trying to catch everything from the past few months. Harry had bought him a camera Jack had mentioned wanting when they first met for making it as far as he had. It was stashed in one of his drawers. “What was he like, Arthur—I mean, Harry? I’ve heard rumors, but…” 

Harry briefly closed his eyes, but then did his best to make his face unreadable. “His name was Eggsy Unwin. Eggsy, of course, was a nickname, but not even his own mother called him by his legal one.” 

Jack nodded. “I know that,” he said. “But I want to know what he was _like_. Do you think we would have gotten along?” 

“Quite famously,” Harry replied. “He loved to laugh, and he liked most of the same things as you did. He was also the first Kingsman agent to come from humble standings, and was one of the finest. Truly…” He stopped. It sounded like a rehearsed speech, almost like a report. “He was the most bloody brilliant man I’ve ever met. You know that I mentored him, but he was the one who taught me a lot of things.” 

“Like what?” Jack asked, leaning forward, dark hair falling over his eyes.

Harry took another sip of his gin and felt the burn in his throat. “He taught me what was missing from my life. I love this life, Jack—otherwise, I never would have proposed anyone—but it eats away at you. It consumes you. You’ll have to lie to your father and your friends and your future partner about what you do, and even if they do find out and don’t run away, your first priority is Kingsman. Always.” Harry forced himself to keep going, even though he had finished the last of the gin. “Eggsy taught me…to surround myself with the people I had. To fight for them, but to also relax around them. To love them.” 

Jack absorbed all of this very quietly, long enough for Harry to glance around the room again. Here and there were pieces of Eggsy—a snow globe or two, a stray striped tie, and even an old pair of trainers Harry couldn’t bear to throw out. Eggsy got into the habit of collecting his own Sun covers, but they were all packed away into the basement, and honestly, Harry knew he wouldn’t be able to look at them if they were out. 

His new recruit and Eggsy _would_ have had good times together, if they met. Jack also came from a lower-economic class, taking on three jobs to support his ill father and two little siblings. Harry, in exchange for taking Jack away for months, sent money to Jack’s father’s accounts and sent someone handpicked to come around and check up on them. Once in a while, Jack would call them from HQ, but it was never for very long. He was busy training every day and making friends by entertaining them with his caricature sketches and looking after his dog, a fat Welsh corgi. 

Harry had come across the young man by accident, when Mr. Jack Yee rescued a little girl who happened to wander out into the road in front of a speeding cab. It took a few tries to reassure him that Harry meant no harm and quite bit to get him to come with him to HQ, but Jack grew to trust him and even seek him out during training, chatting about this or that. 

The last time Harry had proposed a candidate, he had been knocked into a coma for a month and a little longer, and couldn’t interact with Eggsy much at all. It had been different to be on hand for advice or conversation, and Harry wished he and Eggsy could have spent more time together. 

But that had gotten cut short a few years after Harry was crowned Arthur and a few months after Eggsy received a silver ring from Harry, heavyset and engraved on the inside. It had been a terrible mission, and Harry wished that he would someday forget what it had been like to see Eggsy fall with a short cry of pain onto the ground. 

Yet he would _never_ want to forget Eggsy. Never. He had fucking loved that man: his laughs, his curiosity, his pranks, his tenacity, his boldness…and even what would be considered the bad parts: the quick temper, the bouts of sullenness, the absolute stubbornness that had clashed with Harry’s more than once. 

“…I’m sorry,” Jack said at last, looking ashamed. “I shouldn’t have—” 

“No,” Harry said, quickly. “No, it’s…it’s good for me to talk about him. It’s been hard.” He twisted the twin silver ring still sitting on his finger. Harry couldn’t bear parting with it. “Thank you for listening.”

“If you want, I’m ready to listen even more,” Jack said, firmly yet kindly. 

Harry looked at him, and for a long moment, he considered answering in the negative, before slowly beginning, with a soft smile, “Well. There was this incident in Peru—”


End file.
